IF he wore locks, he would have been even more frequently mistaken for reggae singer Buju Banton.

Without locks, he is being constantly asked about a biological relationship with the incarcerated artiste, but resemblance apart, there is yet a brighter side to Dr Fitzroy Hamilton.

At 29, the resident of volatile Seaview Gardens in West St Andrew represents a success story of what can emerge from the ghetto, or as modern-day language puts it… the inner city.

“The Seaview experience was rough, but worthwhile,” Dr Hamilton told the Observer in a mid-week interview shortly after participating in a surgical procedure at the Annotto Bay Hospital in St Mary.

“My father had respect from the community, so we had little to fear, but I remember when I had to run off the corner when shots were being fired. It was tough, but my family struggled and we made it,” the medical officer said.

Academic brilliance has accompanied him along his journey of trying to be the best that he can be.

He excelled at St Anne’s basic and primary schools, defying the odds and passing the Common Entrance examination in grade five, did likewise at Kingston College, from which he left with 14 subjects overall, and graduated from a Cuba university with honours, having been twice named Jamaican Student of the Year.

Since his graduation in 2006, he has worked at the Kingston Public Hospital, Victoria Jubilee Hospital and the Bustamante Hospital for Children, before trekking to the north eastern Jamaica parish for his latest assignment at the Type B hospital.

“I stay in St Mary at times, but my address is still in Seaview Gardens,” he said with a proud, broad smile that characterises and sums up his personality.

“When I used to tell people in Seaview that I wanted to be a doctor, they all laughed.

“Persons were surprised when I passed the Common Entrance exam a year earlier than usual, but I had a supportive mother who was there for me and later on my other brother who also went to KC and my sister, now a nurse, who went to Excelsior,” he said.

“The good thing about the Seaview experience is motivation, and when you can say you have been there, it speaks volumes about you.

“I have always cherished my Seaview experience… that’s my place, man. My community loves me and I try to be a good influence on the youth. When I see them at the hospital, they are more comfortable with me attending to them.

“From I was young, I knew I wanted to cut people, the right way. I give God thanks for Seaview and for the Cuban experience,” he said.

From the Bottom Marley section of Seaview Phase II, Dr Hamilton has seen violence in various forms and has suffered the anguish and emotional pain of losing family members living in other inner-city communities, through violence.

“They killed an uncle of mine in Hannah Town some years ago. He was said to be a kind of don.

“Last year, another uncle was stabbed to death in the Papine area, the knife piercing his heart. It was tough. I knew him well and he was a good friend of (reggae great) Jimmy Cliff,” he said.

His latest stop as a medical doctor in rural Jamaica is for him a comforting and comfortable one and based upon his relationship with staff and patients, he could end up making it a long-lasting one.

“I have been at Annotto Bay for six months now working as a medical officer. I am also doing preparation work for becoming a consultant surgeon.

“I was offered a post-graduate scholarship in Cuba in any specialty, but decided to return home to contribute,” Dr Hamilton said.

“The people at Annotto Bay Hospital are warm, friendly and professional and I enjoy working here,” he said.

He described working in Jamaica’s health sector as difficult, with a high demand and without the infrastructure to facilitate it.

“Rural hospitals are not seen as major hospitals, but they do a lot of excellent work. In the rural areas there are less cases, but you handle them with much ease and it helps you mature as a doctor.

“Rural hospitals don’t always have all the facilities for things like Ultra Sound, CT Scan and X-Rays, but the politics of the staff is usually good. Like in the case of Annotto Bay, the staff puts patient care in front and staff work under adverse conditions to make sure that people benefit,” he said.

After leaving KC in 1998, the then teenager enrolled in the natural science programme at the University of the West Indies for a year, but had to quit, as his family could not afford the tuition and other fees.

“While I stayed the year, I could not sit the exams, because the fees were not paid. That’s when I heard about the Cuban scholarship programme. I applied for it, got it, and left Jamaica on September 23, 1999.

“I remember it well, as when I arrived in Cuba, I drove to school in the front of a truck,” he said.

For the next seven years, he would participate fully in the programmes of the Medical Sciences University of Gramna, eastern Cuba where the Fidel Castro Ruz-led Cuban Revolution began in 1956 and climaxed on January 1, 1959 when then Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista fled the country.

As for the Buju lookalike thing, he appears to be stuck with that for now.

“People take me for Buju everyday. I just can’t seem to escape it everywhere I go,” he said.

“From I was attending high school, people have been taking me for Buju. My nickname in school was ‘Lateral Buju’ because they used to say I looked like him more from sideways,” he said.

Unlike his lookalike though, Dr Hamilton is counting his blessings that he has passed through the tough experience of living in an economically-challenged community with a penchant for bone-hard crimes, and remains free to tell the tale.

See the Sunday Observer for more on the Annotto Bay Hospital.